


The Little Prince's Summer

by Valgus



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Featuring some elements of 'The Little Prince'., Little Kageyama was already such a little prince., M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-26
Updated: 2016-01-26
Packaged: 2018-05-16 08:36:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5821600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valgus/pseuds/Valgus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Kageyama, why did you start playing volleyball in the first place?” asked Hinata one day.</p><p>Kageyama didn’t answer immediately. In fact, he didn’t answer at all that time.</p><p>What Hinata didn’t know was that perhaps Hinata had always been the reason Kageyama loved volleyball.</p><p>This is story in which Kageyama’s volleyball career started from his meeting with a weird, orange-haired man on the park when he was six.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Little Prince's Summer

Kageyama and his mother just saw Hinata off one evening. Hinata followed Kageyama home so they could do their English homework together. When their homework finished, Hinata left immediately before dark.

Kageyama’s mother stood for a while before the closed front door. “Tobio, are you sure Hinata-kun isn’t relative of Hi-kun?”

Kageyama chuckled, “Mm, I don’t think so.”

*)*

Little Kageyama stood upon Dome Climber in the park, looking down upon three other little boys on the ground.

“Honestly, you guys are kind of suck at climbing,” he said.

One of the boys looked up at Kageyama, frowning, “Whatever. It’s no fun climbing dome, anyway. Hey, let’s play baseball!”

Kageyama watched his friends left the park. He sighed, and then climbed down the dome before jumping to the ground. 

It was always like this. Kageyama would suggest a game, he’d excel too much at it, and then his friends would get bored. Should he play swing by himself again? Or perhaps build a small castle on the sand box? Kageyama thought castle looked cool, but he didn’t really like it since his friends called him “Little Prince” for being annoying, and snobbish, and too good at anything he did.

He looked down at his own shadow and talked to it, “I’m not a Little Prince!”

“… Why not?”

Kageyama saw that someone had stood behind him, layering Kageyama’s shadow with him. He looked up to a tall man in white jersey. The summer wind blew the man’s unruly bright orange hair.

“Who are you?” asked Kageyama, frowning because he had to look up so high to this tall man.

“Ha! That is indeed prince-like,” the Orange Man chuckled.

Kageyama wanted to kick this stranger on the knee. “Why should I be Little Prince?”

“Why shouldn’t you?”

“Because it doesn’t feel good! They’re using that name to mock me!”

The man in jersey knelt down, “Ah. I see. It must be uncomfortable for you, huh? Have you tried to tell them that you don’t like it?”

“I did! But then I got better than them in something and they called me Little Prince again,” pouted Kageyama to the ground. “I don’t like—eh?”

He looked up when he felt a large, warm hand upon his head. The Orange Man had really brown eyes up close and they reminded Kageyama to wood and sun at the same time. “Do you know that Little Prince is actually a title of a very famous book?”

“Eh? Really?”

“Yes! It was written looong time ago by this aviator Frenchman. It’s one of my favorite books, actually.”

“What’s this book is about?”

The Orange Man grinned, “About a little boy who plays volleyball! Look it up, then tell me about it tomorrow, okay?”

“O… okay?”

Kageyama’s jaw was still hanging when he saw the Orange Man left clutching volleyball against his chest.

*)*

Kageyama asked his mother to bring him to a bookstore, where he purchased a copy of “The Little Prince”.

Kageyama was halfway through it when he realized that the Orange Man had lied to him. The book had nothing to do with volleyball at all.

Nevertheless, there was a part that Kageyama kind of liked, which was when The Little Prince asked a fox to play with him. The fox said that he couldn’t play with The Little Prince, because The Little Prince hadn’t tamed him yet.

Perhaps Kageyama just hadn’t tamed his friends quite yet.

Kageyama looked at the illustration of The Little Prince and his unruly, blond hair, which reminded Kageyama to a certain Orange Man.

*)*

“You… you lied to me!”

“And good morning to you, Little Prince.”

“Don’t call me that!”

When Kageyama returned to the park next day, the Orange Man was already there, tossing his volleyball alone. 

“So, have you read the book?” Orange Man grinned, before kneeling in front of Kageyama again.

Kageyama didn’t like it that he was so much shorter. Why he wasn’t a 180-cm high six years old? “I did! And there’s nothing about volleyball in there.”

“There isn’t? Oh no…” said the Orange Man and Kageyama actually smacked him on the head with his hardcover copy of “The Little Prince”. Orange Man was terrible at pretending and the expression he made as he did was really annoying.

But Orange Man wasn’t angry when Kageyama smacked him, unlike Kageyama’s friends. They’d cry and they’d call their parents and Kageyama would get in trouble.

“You’re so fiery and intense,” Orange Man chuckled, patting Kageyama’s head again with his big, warm palm. “It’s kind of cool.”

Kageyama was enraged—or so he thought. He couldn’t hide his happiness, so he shoved the book into the man’s hand. “H-hey! Why do you tell me that Little Prince is playing volleyball when he isn’t?”

“Because volleyball is a really great sport!” Orange Man answered, spinning his volleyball on his hand, smiling at Kageyama. “You see, you’re fighting against gravity as you connect ball from one side to another side of the court.”

“Fighting gravity?”

“Yes! There’s a lot of jumping, which I do a lot.”

“Oh! Ojii-san, you’re playing volleyball?”

“Urgh… maybe don’t call me ‘Ojii-san’—Uncle. I sound so old.”

“But you’re an Ojii-san! You’re, like, 40 years old, right?”

“Why you little…! I’m 36! 36!”

Little Kageyama shrugged, “It’s just 4 years. There isn’t much difference.”

“Huh? What are you talking about? You’re, like, 5 yourself! In 4 years, you’d be almost 10 years old! It’s a long time!”

“Actually,” Kageyama placed his hands on his hips. “I’m 6 years old.” He said it so proudly because he wasn’t such a child anymore. He’d be 7 just this winter!

“Haha, yeah, 7. That’s okay, but… I’ll be 37 next month! Beat that, you little blueberry!”

“What? How dare you call me that, Orange Ojii-san!”

“Stop calling me ‘Ojii-san’!”

Kageyama knocked the Orange Man with his book again, so Orange Man stood and groaned, “Okay! Stop hitting me with your book! Now, let’s play toss and receive with me.”

“’Toss’? ‘Receive’?” Little Kageyama followed the Orange Man to the wider side of the park anyway.

“Yep. You look like you’d be a great setter, Tiny Blueberry-kun.”

“Don’t call me with weird name, Orange Ojii-san! Also, what is ‘setter’?”

Orange Man’s smile was like the summer sun itself; warm and bright. “You see, Blueberry-kun, ‘setter’ is…”

*)*

The next day, Kageyama returned to the park with two books, the hardcover copy of “The Little Prince” and a new one he just purchased yesterday, “How to Play Volleyball!”. 

“Aren’t spiker cooler than setter, Ojii-san?” asked Hinata. He sat by the edge of sand box, while a few steps of him, Orange Man was sitting on a swing. 

“Cooler, sure, but setter is the one who bring potential of the whole team! Setter connects the ball the most, you see.”

They talked a good hour about setter. Then Kageyama realized something he wanted to tell the Orange Man, since he had finished reading “The Little Prince”.

“Ojii-san, are you taming me?”

“Hmmm?”

“It’s said in this book,” Kageyama walked towards the Orange Man to show him the 21st chapter of “The Little Prince”. “See, the Little Prince wasn’t happy, so he wanted to play with the Fox. But the fox said the Little Prince couldn’t play with him, because the fox isn’t tamed.

“So then the Little Prince tamed him by sitting closer and closer each day. Little Prince also come back at the same time every day, so that the fox can wait for his arrival happily.”

Orange Man chuckled, “Yes! I am taming you so you can play with me. Isn’t it great to have ties, Blueberry-kun.”

Kageyama pouted and puffed his cheeks, “Ojii-san, I have name, you know. It’s Kageyama Tobio. What’s your name, Ojii-san?”

Orange Man mumbled, “Mm, just call me ‘Hi-kun’.”

“’Hi’?”

“Yes. From the Kanji ‘sun’, like the one on our country’s name.”

Orange Man, now named Hi-kun, flopped down from his swing and took Kageyama’s little palm to write the sun character there.

“Hi-kun,” repeated Kageyama.

“Yes. No more ‘Ojii-san’.”

“As long as you stopped calling me ‘Blueberry-kun’ and call me ‘Kageyama’ instead.”

Hi-kun grinned, “Deal!”

*)*

That night, after finishing the whole chapter on setter, Kageyama opened “The Little Prince” again.

If the Little Prince hadn’t tame the fox, the Little Prince would be just one of hundred thousand other little boys in the world. But when Little Prince tamed the fox and became his friend, Little Prince became special for the fox.

Kageyama closed his eyes and thought about the orange-haired Hi-kun. Hi-kun probably could pick any other little boys in the park, but he had tamed Kageyama, so to Kageyama, Hi-kun was special.

Hi-kun was unique in the entire world. And to Hi-kun, Kageyama was unique in the entire world too.

Kageyama smiled and fell asleep on happy dream about setting for Hi-kun in real volleyball match.

*)*

“Hi-kun, why are you here?”

“What do you mean, Kageyama?”

“You’re not usually here on summer, are you?”

“No. I’m usually in Tokyo.”

“What kind of work do you do in Tokyo?”

“I’m a professional athlete! Duh! I thought I made that clear!”

“What can I say? You look to slob to be an athlete, Hi-kun!” 

“Why you, Kageyama!”

Kageyama climbed the dome and laughed as Hi-kun tried to grab him from the ground. Kageyama looked down to Hi-kun and smiled when Hi-kun smiled.

“Hi-kun, you’re married, aren’t you?”

“Huh? Ah?”

“You have ring on your left hand.”

“Ah! Yes, this…”

“Are you saying that you’re not married?”

“Well, you always get this little weird popularity if you’re representing Japan internationally, but I’m not exactly married. I think I will, you know, formally, though I’d say I’m practically married already.”

Whatever Hi-kun said was too complicated for Kageyama, “I don’t understand, Hi-kun.”

“Let’s put it this way; I have someone and that person is the one who gave me this ring.”

Kageyama nodded, intrigued, and a little jealous. Sure, he was special little boy for Hi-kun, but Hi-kun had a girlfriend, which was probably more special than Kageyama. Okay, actually, Kageyama was a lot jealous. “What kind of person is she?”

Hi-kun’s bright, radiant smile turned into a shy, yet endearing one. “A dark-haired beauty.”

Kageyama couldn’t stand the loving expression on Hi-kun’s face, so he jumped down from the dome and landed on Hi-kun’s stomach.

“Hi-kun, I’ll toss to you again!”

“Uh… sure. Just please don’t jump me like that. I can die.”

“No, you won’t!” Kageyama peeled himself from Hi-kun stomach and extended his little hand to the orange-haired man. “Come on. I have only an hour before I need to go home.”

Hi-kun took his hand and Kageyama smiled.

*)*

Sometime in Kageyama and Hi-kun’s volleyball session, Hi-kun said that Kageyama had raw talent to be good setter. Kageyama couldn’t stop smiling for the week after that. 

But then one day, after Hi-kun turned 37—they visited a local cake shop on Hi-kun’s birthday and Hi-kun bought a chocolate cake too big for both of them—Hi-kun said that he would be going back to Tokyo soon.

Kageyama knew this was coming. The Little Prince had to depart from his fox too in the book.

“’I shall cry’,” Kageyama squeezed his knuckles, quoting the book.

“Hey, Kageyama,” Hi-kun knelt in front of him again. “Do you think that after all you’d prefer if I never met you and tamed you?”

Kageyama closed his eyes for a while, though he already knew the answer. If Hi-kun never came, Kageyama would spend his summer days alone. “No. You taming me… have done me good. From now on, whenever I look at orange fruit, I will remember you and be happy even just a little bit.”

Hi-kun chuckled, “So you’re still thinking of me as ‘Orange Man’, huh…”

Kageyama looked up and let his eyes leaked. “Don’t go, Hi-kun.”

“I’m not going anywhere as long as you keep playing volleyball, Kageyama,” Hi-kun patted Kageyama’s head again. “Do you remember what the fox said to the Little Prince before they separated?”

Kageyama felt Hi-kun’s finger wiped his tears away, “Y-yes. ‘What is essential is invisible to the eye.’”

“See? So even though you can’t see me, you can still feel me whenever you play volleyball.”

“A-and,” Kageyama added, wanting to impress Hi-kun even if just a little more. “’It is the time that Little Prince have wasted for his rose that makes his rose so important.’ S-so, like, I’m important to you because you spent so much of your time with me teaching me volleyball. A-and…

“And you’re so important to me because I’ve wasted my precious summer for you.”

“That’s my Kageyama,” Hi-kun smiled, patted Kageyama once more time in the head.

And then Hi-kun left.

*)*

Sometime before Kageyama graduated elementary school, he remembered seeing Hi-kun on television. Hi-kun was tall for a Japanese man, but the guy next to him was even taller. Not only he was tall, but he was also really handsome. Kageyama then thought that perhaps Hi-kun had a boyfriend, not a girlfriend.

Then Kageyama entered Kigawa Daiichi Junior High and he might have forgotten about the summer he spent with Hi-kun, with him wanting to defeat Oikawa Tooru from best setter position.

*)*

“I wonder where is Hi-kun’s now. It had been ten years,” said Kageyama’s mother as she walked back to the kitchen, getting ready for preparing dinner.

Kageyama shrugged, “Playing volleyball, obviously.”

But when his mother didn’t look, Kageyama smiled, and then decided to re-read “The Little Prince” while waiting for dinner.

*)*

“Hey, Hinata.”

“What? I’m not sharing you meat bun.”

“Who wants your stupid meat bun, Dumbass?”

Kageyama was walking side by side with Hinata after practice, Hinata’s bicycle clattering beside him.

“No? What is it, then?”

“You started playing volleyball because of the Little Giant, right?”

“Yes! That is correct!”

“So… do you ever wonder why I ever started playing volleyball?”

“Um… I did. I think I asked you, but you didn’t answer. I didn’t think it’s very important. Is it important?”

“Is Little Giant important to you?”

“Very!”

“Then I guess it’s the same.”

“Ah! Okay. So… why did you start playing volleyball, Kageyama?”

Kageyama peered down at the face underneath the unruly orange hair, “Because of you.”

“Oh! Eh? What do you mean? But I just met you at that match in junior high.”

“No, it’s really you. I don’t know how, but it’s you.”

“But you’ve already playing volleyball when we met…! Hey! Kageyama? Explain it to me!”

Kageyama started to sprint and laugh, so Hinata climbed on his bike and went after Kageyama.

He remembered that one time when he saw Hi-kun and his handsome boyfriend on television, standing side by side as Japanese representatives.

“Uweh! Kageyama! Your smile is so creepy!” commented Hinata, who was pedaling next to him.

And Kageyama just laughed out loud.

**Author's Note:**

> This is sort of a Side-B of ["In the Hospital"](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5785699). Yes, I wrote that one.
> 
> I wanted to make Kageyama to be the reason that Hinata started volleyball as well, but as we all know, Hinata's reason is the Small Giant.
> 
> Thank you for reading this.
> 
> Shall I write the side of 36-years-old KageHina, in which "Hi-kun" told his "dark-haired beauty" of a "girlfriend" about the little blueberry (?) boy he met on summer? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


End file.
